The Curtis File

Before Bishop Edward M. Egan took over the Bridgeport diocese in 1988, Bishop Walter Curtis ran it for 27 years. Excerpts from Curtis' depositions, which were sealed by the court:

On transferring priests:

Q: What was the purpose, Bishop, of the reassigning to a different parish?

Curtis: Well, I presume it was to allow him to have a fresh start.

Q: All right, when he was assigned to a different parish, would anyone be advised of the problem which he had previously had?

Curtis: No.

Q: Were there any priests during the time that you were bishop that were transferred to a different diocese because they were found to be guilty, if you will, of pedophilic conduct in the Diocese of Bridgeport?

Curtis: Yes.

On pedophilia:

Q: Did you understand that to be a temporary condition or a disease, or what was your understanding of it when you were bishop of Bridgeport?

Curtis: I don't think I saw this is as a permanent condition. It was a - more incidental.

Q: More incidental. And what do you mean by incidental, if I may ask? Incidental to what?

Curtis: Well, it would happen on occasion. It wasn't a sort of a, it wasn't - I'm not sure how to state it.

Q: In other words, it wasn't a continual thing. It was an occasional thing?

Curtis: Yes. Yes.

On secrecy:

Q: You had mentioned before that there were times that you would take a complaint in regard to a priest and take it out of the file. I think you said because it was old, or -

Curtis: Out of the secret file.

Q: Out of the secret file, OK, and where would you put that when you took it out?

Curtis: I would destroy it.

Q: You'd destroy it.

Curtis: Yeah.

Q: And what was - give me an example of what would be the reason you would do that.

Curtis: Well, it would be - it would be an antiquated issue, happened so long before, there was no point in preserving it any longer.